Happy Pentecost Sunday! Confidence in the Trinity—One God, three Persons—is essential to effective prayer. When Christ’s birth was announced to Mary, of One God, three Persons was present. Father God sent the Son. Son God was sent. Spirit God activated Christ in Mary’s womb. Not only did Father, Son, Holy Spirit work together in Jesus birth, this is precisely how the One God, three Persons continues to eternally function.   Read More

On this day, May 22, in the Year of our Lord 1662, Richard Baxter preached at St. Bride’s Church in Blackfriars, England. He stood at the pulpit and invited the manifest presence of Christ. God came. The visitation from Heaven was powerful. From that day forward until Baxter’s death in 1691, churches all across the British Isles experienced unusual revival, deep repentance, and confession of sin. The move of God was so deep, it resulted in a lifestyle of holiness and devotion to Christ.  Read More

On this day, May 21, in the Year of our Lord 1738, Charles Wesley met Christ as his Savior. He was so filled with joy over his conversion that he wrote his first, and perhaps greatest hymn, “And Can It Be.” Three days later, his brother, John, would also meet Christ. While Charles Wesley is best known for writing over 6,000 hymns, he was a powerful preacher and remarkable leader in his own right.   Read More

You are never too young to be called by God. God knows just the right time to reveal to you your distinct calling. He is never too late; He is never too early. When God revealed Himself to Jeremiah, his calling was initially met with resistance. Jeremiah had two objections. I do not know how to speak…I am only a youth. Jeremiah 1:6 It was natural for him to feel inadequate and insecure. But when he encountered God’s manifest presence those feelings vanquished. He was empowered, emboldened and activated. He went on to walk in his calling.   Read More

We all want to be led by the Holy Spirit. We love it when the Holy Spirit leads us up on the mountain, or to the front of the line, or into the spotlight. But when was the last time the Holy Spirit led you into the wilderness—did you obey His leading? When Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at the front end of His ministry, before He was ever led in front of the crowds, He was led into the wilderness—led into solitude.  Read More

Acknowledging the Trinity, one God, three Persons, is essential to effective prayer. In only a few words, Ephesians 2:18 gives us profound revelation into the dynamic role of each Person of the One True God. It is the Father God whom we approach in prayer. It is Christ, God the Son, through whom we have access to the Father. It the Spirit of God who activates our encounter with the Father.  Read More

It is essential that when you pray you understand who you are talking with. You are talking with none other than the One True God whose Son is Jesus Christ. Affirming the Trinity is essential to any healthy prayer life. The Bible is full of Trinitarian scripture. Acts 2:33 is one such example. When Christ was exalted to the right hand of the Father, He was given the Holy Spirit to pour out on the church. What a dynamic picture of the tri-unity of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Read More

The deity of Christ is not simply another plank in our doctrinal statement, it is a life-giving reality you want to declare with confidence when you pray. When Jesus was being grilled by the religious leaders of his day, the leaders tried to prove that Jesus was inferior to Abraham. The Jews accused Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” (John 8:47). It didn’t take long for Jesus to turn the tables.  Read More

Take time today to consider what it means to be a coheir with Christ. It will blow your mind. The orphan spirit is one of fear, poverty, rejection, pain, abuse, dishonor, curses and insecurity. The Spirit of adoption, on the other hand, is a Spirit of freedom, acceptance, abundance, healing, respect, honor, blessing and security.  Read More

Calling God ‘Father’ is not a right you earn or deserve, but it is a right you receive when you come to Christ. Christ alone gives you the right to call God, Father. For all eternity you will be praising Christ for adopting you into the family—for giving you the legal right to call Him Daddy. What an honor! What a joy! What a privilege!  Read More

Breaking off the orphan spirit is nothing you can accomplish through your efforts; Christ accomplishes it for you. The orphan spirit is easy to recognize—it is a spirit of fear, poverty, rejection, pain, abuse, dishonor, curses and insecurity.   Read More

Christ is the one who conquers the orphan spirit. Anyone without Christ is an orphan. Only Christ can adopt orphans into God’s family. And the most effective way to evict the orphan spirit is to welcome the manifest presence of Christ. After all, when He said, “I will come to you,” He was not talking about the omnipresence of God; He was obviously talking about His manifest presence.   Read More

On this day, May 11, in the year of our Lord 1727, Nicholas Ludwig Von Zinzendorf welcomed a mighty move of prevailing prayer. He and his young congregation gathered for a praise service where he exhorted them toward unity within their fellowship and spontaneously, a wave of confession, repentance of sin, and a burden for prevailing prayer broke out among them. This was the first recorded move of God among the group of believers that would become the Moravian Missionary Force. Over the next seventy-five years they would send out six hundred missionaries worldwide. This would become the birth of the modern missionary movement. And it began with prayer that led them to an encounter with the manifest presence of Christ.  Read More

Christ tells us we are not orphans, but the orphan spirit tries to convince us otherwise. It is all too easy to believe the lie. If you are going to evict the orphan spirit, you first need to understand it and expose it. An orphan is not a full-fledged member of the family. Orphans fear rejection. Orphans fight for everything they get. An orphan lives in fear of rejection, fear of loss, fear of hurt, and fear of abandonment. An orphan continually questions their self worth.  Read More

Perhaps the greatest enemy to your intimacy with Christ is the orphan spirit. When God is your Father, no one can steal your birthright, but the orphan spirit works overtime to question your birthright. The orphan spirit is a lying spirit. It deceitfully accuses you that God does not love you, that He rejects you, disqualifies you, and holds you in contempt. This lying spirit is a religious spirit that makes you feel like an orphan—unloved, lonely and lost.   Read More

We have turned away from the persecuted church for too long. We can no longer turn away; we must turn toward our precious brothers and sisters whose lives are on the line. For a long time, many of us have been praying, Lord, teach us to pray. It’s time for an upgrade. We now want to ask, Lord, teach us to pray for the persecuted church. In China, Sudan, India, Somalia, Iran, and many other nations, Christians are being severely persecuted for their faith, and daily some are even being killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.  Read More

God is inviting you to stand in prayer with the persecuted church. What do you say? The first martyr in the early church was Stephen. While he was being pelted to death with stones, he had a remarkable encounter with the manifest presence of Christ. He lifted up his eyes above his raging enemies and saw a most remarkable sight—heaven was standing open, and Christ Himself was standing at attention. Virtually every other place in the New Testament where we see the ascended Christ, He is seated at the right hand of God. Here, however, at Stephen’s martyrdom, Christ is standing as if He is standing in the honor of His servant, Stephen.  Read More

Let’s face it, most of us feel incapable of praying for the persecuted church. We even feel unworthy. Who are we to pray for these precious people whose lives are on the line everyday for Christ? What do we know about persecution?  Read More

On this day, May 5, in the year of our Lord 1912, a significant move of the Holy Spirit came on the church in Tibet. Missionaries reported that over a period of several months, one hundred people received the baptism of the Holy Spirit followed by unusual signs and wonders, including singing in the Spirit, visions, prophecy, holy laughter, falling to the ground under the power of God, physical healings and deliverance.   Read More

When you seek God’s manifest presence from your spirit, you are devoted to prayer. The two disciplines that will help you are (1) being watchful and (2) being thankful. God wants to teach you today to be both watchful for His Presence and thankful for His Presence.   Read More

Everyone prays in one way or another, but God calls us to be devoted to prayer. Not only is the early church an example of being devoted to prayer, but the apostle Paul told the church in Rome that they, too, were to be devoted to prayer. The strongest word in the Greek language for commitment is proskartereo. It is used only nine times in the New Testament, five times in relation to prayer. It is the single word used to describe the prayer life of the early church in Jerusalem before and after Pentecost, and it is the word the apostle Paul uses here to exhort the believers in Rome to “be constant in prayer.”   Read More

Every church prays, but not every church is devoted to prayer. A church that prays, prays sporadically when there are problems, asking God to bless what they’re doing. A church devoted to prayer prays consistently when there are opportunities and does what God is blessing. A church that prays shows the community what they can do; a church devoted to prayer shows the community what God can do.  Read More

Building an upper room requires a double anointing. The first Holy Spirit anointing empowers us to pray and seek the manifest presence of Christ. This is anointing number one and miracle number one. The second anointing is the Holy Spirit empowerment to winsomely gather five to ten others to pray with us.  Read More

Just think of it—the Christ-encountering, history-shaping, nation-reaching, mission-launching upper room of Antioch only had five people at the prayer meeting. How many times have we lamented how few people come to pray? We think that somehow if we have more people, we will have more power in prayer. When will we learn that answers to prayer are not the result of the size of our prayer meeting, but the size of our God?   Read More